MagicMtnDan
09-22-2005, 07:30 AM
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GM Shows New Full-Size Utes
Whether General Motors' future depends on their success is apparently a matter of debate, but there is no question that the new full-size SUVs the automaker unveiled in Detroit on Tuesday are "critical for us," acknowledged North American director Mark LaNeve.
Faced with eroding sales and profit margins for the old line of big utes, collectively known inside GM as the GMT800s, product chief and Vice Chairman Bob Lutz ordered a full-scale mobilization of engineering resources, hoping to get the new GMT900 series to market. The first of 12 different models in three different body styled will now hit market during the first quarter of 2006, as much as six months earlier than originally planned. The rest will follow in the second quarter.
But with fuel prices near record levels, the question is whether the market for large pickups has already peaked, threatening the business case behind the GMT900 series. "It's realistic to assume the segment won't grow," conceded Lutz, "but I do believe with these vehicles we will be gaining share." In recent years, GM has routinely captured between 60 to 62 percent of the full-size pickup market, which has been running around 750,000 vehicles annually. The automaker has had to steadily ramp up incentives to maintain that momentum, however, cutting into profit margins that, at peak, ran as high as 30 percent of dealer invoice, estimated Joe Phillippi, chief analyst with the consulting firm, AutoTrends, Inc.
GM officials underscored the fact that the 2007-model SUVs feature a variety of gas-saving technologies, such as displacement-on-demand - which idles half an engine's cylinders when power demand is low. And GM officials noted that the new utes are, collectively, the most aerodynamic in the segment. All told, such factors will boost their fuel economy an average 1 mile per gallon over the old GMT800 series. The '07 rear-drive Chevrolet Tahoe, for example, will get an estimated 20.5 mpg, with the four-wheel-drive version averaging 20.1 mpg.
"We're very aware of fuel prices and the effect they have on our business, especially full-size trucks," said LaNeve. But while he insisted the big truck segment "is not going away," he conceded "it may contract." If fuel prices do continue to spike, triggering a significant shift in the market, added Lutz, GM is preparing itself. It will have a total of 14 crossover models on the market within two years. Many of those are based off the new Lambda platform.-
GM Shows New Full-Size Utes
Whether General Motors' future depends on their success is apparently a matter of debate, but there is no question that the new full-size SUVs the automaker unveiled in Detroit on Tuesday are "critical for us," acknowledged North American director Mark LaNeve.
Faced with eroding sales and profit margins for the old line of big utes, collectively known inside GM as the GMT800s, product chief and Vice Chairman Bob Lutz ordered a full-scale mobilization of engineering resources, hoping to get the new GMT900 series to market. The first of 12 different models in three different body styled will now hit market during the first quarter of 2006, as much as six months earlier than originally planned. The rest will follow in the second quarter.
But with fuel prices near record levels, the question is whether the market for large pickups has already peaked, threatening the business case behind the GMT900 series. "It's realistic to assume the segment won't grow," conceded Lutz, "but I do believe with these vehicles we will be gaining share." In recent years, GM has routinely captured between 60 to 62 percent of the full-size pickup market, which has been running around 750,000 vehicles annually. The automaker has had to steadily ramp up incentives to maintain that momentum, however, cutting into profit margins that, at peak, ran as high as 30 percent of dealer invoice, estimated Joe Phillippi, chief analyst with the consulting firm, AutoTrends, Inc.
GM officials underscored the fact that the 2007-model SUVs feature a variety of gas-saving technologies, such as displacement-on-demand - which idles half an engine's cylinders when power demand is low. And GM officials noted that the new utes are, collectively, the most aerodynamic in the segment. All told, such factors will boost their fuel economy an average 1 mile per gallon over the old GMT800 series. The '07 rear-drive Chevrolet Tahoe, for example, will get an estimated 20.5 mpg, with the four-wheel-drive version averaging 20.1 mpg.
"We're very aware of fuel prices and the effect they have on our business, especially full-size trucks," said LaNeve. But while he insisted the big truck segment "is not going away," he conceded "it may contract." If fuel prices do continue to spike, triggering a significant shift in the market, added Lutz, GM is preparing itself. It will have a total of 14 crossover models on the market within two years. Many of those are based off the new Lambda platform.-